Dow Chemical at OTC: New technology is helping oil companies recycle all of that fracking waste water

By Rhiannon Meyers | Houston Chronicle

Published 8:53 am, Saturday, May 9, 2015

HOUSTON — Facing environmental pressures and escalating costs, more oil companies are recycling and reusing the vast amounts of water used during hydraulic fracturing operations rather than hauling the liquid off to get injected underground.

New technological advances have allowed oil companies to more easily convert drilling waste water to get reused in the oil patch, said Larry Ryan, president of Dow Chemical’s energy and water solutions business in an interview with Fuel Fix at the company’s booth at the Offshore Technology Conference.

The industry’s largest gathering remains largely focused on offshore trends and technologies, but the U.S. shale boom continues to drive conversations on the floor, despite a global crude collapse that’s forced a slowdown in onshore operations. Dow Chemical, best known as a multinational chemical corporation, also offers technology and equipment for oil, gas and water management businesses.

While the company focused most of its attention from its OTC booth on a subsea pipe insulation system that allows waxy crudes to continue flowing, Ryan also took time to talk about the industry’s heightened interest in handling the massive amounts of water left over from hydraulic fracturing operations.

Fluids used during fracturing operations have been reformulated to withstand higher levels of salt in water, which means oil firms no longer have to process the water as heavily as they did before, making recycling more economically feasible, Ryan said.

Three to four years ago, disposal wells were the cheapest option; now, recycling and reusing has become as cost competitive, if not cheaper, than injecting waste water underground.

“Hauling water around in trucks is expensive,” he said.

As oil companies continue to look for ways to slash costs and get more efficient,particularly in onshore operations, expect more firms to join forces when it comes to water management, teaming up to create centralized water treatment facilities that serve a single field operated by multiple companies, a particularly attractive concept for smaller, independent firms with particularly tight budgets, Ryan said.

“People have to reduce their cost and the downturn is the best time to do that,” he said. “This is painful in the short-term, but in the long-term, it’s healthy for the industry.”